USB Linux Microphones

A good USB microphone is not exactly cheap. If you use Linux, you do not
want to spend money buying a microphone only to find that it does not work
with Linux. The goal of this page is to provide a list of USB microphones,
mixers and some webcams that are confirmed to work or to not work with
Linux.

Most manufacturers will not advertise that their devices work with Linux just
because they don't want to support it. However, almost all USB audio devices
use a standard interface, which is supported by Linux. So the chances of a USB
microphone working with Linux is much greater now (2009) than it was a few
years ago. If they claim something along the lines of "No special drivers are
needed with Windows", then there is a good chance that it will work with Linux.
However, before purchasing a microphone, it is re-assuring to find that others
have successfully used it with Linux. So that is what I'm attempting to
document here.

If you know of other devices that are confirmed to either work or not
work with Linux, please send that information to me at: tim (at) ksu.edu, so
that I can add it to the list.

USB Microphones Known to Work with Linux

Note

The microphones listed below should work with any Linux Distribution.
Distributions that are confirmed to successfully use the microphone
are listed just in case that information helps.

Microphone / Mixer

Notes (Confirmed distrubution)

Alesis IO|2 USB Audio Hub

24 bit device, but only get 16 bit with Linux

Blue Snowflake

Lambda Lexicon

Ubuntu 9.04

Logitech 9000 Pro webcam

Logitec USB Microphone

Some problems reported by some

M-Audio FastTrack USB Mixer

Did not work with some older distributions, but confirmed to work with Ubuntu 10.04